Ex-Baylor football coach Art Briles hired by CFL's Tiger-Cats

Chronicle news services

August 28, 2017

Photo: Ron Jenkins, FRE

FILE - In this Sept. 25, 2016, file photo, former Baylor football coach Art Briles watches the Dallas Cowboys and the Chicago Bears warm up for an NFL football game in Arlington, Texas. The Hamilton Tiger-Cats of the Canadian Football League have hired former Baylor coach Art Briles to be an assistant. The team announced the move Monday, Aug. 28, 2017, via Twitter. (AP Photo/Ron Jenkins, File)

FILE - In this Sept. 25, 2016, file photo, former Baylor football...

HAMILTON, Ontario - Less than 11 hours after the Hamilton Tiger-Cats announced the hiring of former Baylor coach Art Briles by tweeting a news release celebrating his stellar college record, the league and the team backtracked in the face of public pressure and said he will not be joining the Canadian Football League team as an assistant after all.

"Art Briles will no longer be joining the Hamilton Tiger-Cats as a coach," the joint statement read. "We came to this decision this evening following a lengthy discussion between the league and the Hamilton organization. We wish Mr. Briles all the best in his future endeavours."

Hamilton is off to an 0-8 start and recently changed head coaches, promoting former NFL and college coach June Jones, a longtime friend and colleague of Briles, after he was serving as an assistant for the team.

0-8 Hamilton desperate

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Briles, 61, has been out of coaching since May 2016, when Baylor fired him after an independent investigation found a pattern of failures in the football department in response to sexual assault allegations against players and "significant concerns about the tone and culture within Baylor's football program as it relates to accountability for all forms of athlete misconduct."

"He's excited to be back in the coaching game. I believe he belongs in college football, but his skills translate to any level," Mark Lanier, Briles' lawyer, told the Associated Press earlier in the day.

Jones was ready to give Briles a chance to resurrect his coaching career. The two have a relationship that goes back years and their college coaching careers in Texas overlapped. Jones was at SMU in Dallas during the time Briles was head coach at Baylor in Waco.

Baylor already has settled at least two Title IX lawsuits against the school and earlier this month reached a deal with former student Jasmin Hernandez, the first of several women to file federal Title IX lawsuits against the world's largest Baptist university. The school previously settled with three women who had not sued.

Briles has acknowledged making mistakes and apologized for some "bad things that went on under my watch."

Hiring fueled backlash

The hire sparked criticism on social media, including a Twitter post by Theo Fleury, the former NHL star who was sexually abused by his junior coach.

"If you knew and didn't say anything then you are just as much a part of rape as the people who committed rape. Shame on #CFL," Fleury tweeted.

Others urged CFL commissioner Randy Ambrosie to step in and void Briles' hiring. Apparently, the backlash to Briles' hiring was just too overwhelming, and the CFL acted quickly to overturn the decision to hire Briles.